Heartbreak for the Rockets as Star of Bessèges overall win slips through their fingers

It was unbelievable but true: the Rockets managed to finish second four days in a row at the Star of Bessèges. Kubiš was the unfortunate runner-up three times, but it did at least mean he started the final stage in the leader’s jersey. He had to defend it on the now well-known time trial to L’Hermitage.

A brutal race against the clock, mainly because of the climb at the finish. The first rider down the start ramp, Kasper Haugland (Decathlon CMA CGM), had already posted a solid time. But his team-mate Jordan Labrosse suffered on the course far less and really sharpened the benchmark: 15:16 for 10.3 kilometres, including that final climb.

He had paced the time trial well and was extremely strong on the climb. As always in the Star of Bessèges, that proved crucial: the differences could really be made there. Wessel Mouris, one of the young riders from the Rockets, also judged his effort well — but came up two seconds short at the line. Team-mate Tomas Kopecký also narrowly missed out.

The gaps were small, but the performances from Bas Tietema’s squad gave hope for Kubiš, who was trying to defend his advantage. But there was also pressure from within the broader GC fight — most notably from Niklas Larsen. The Dane took bronze in last year’s European time trial championships and was the quickest on the road for a while. At the top of the final climb, however, Maxime Decomble was nine seconds faster.

The very young Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ United took a seat in the hot seat — and, virtually, the leader’s jersey as well. But team-mate Costiou was already five seconds quicker again. He had to make up 20 seconds on Kubiš, and suddenly the bar was set extremely high for the Slovak. Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM) rode an excellent time trial too, but lost just a little too much time to Costiou to stay ahead of him in the overall classification.

Then it was time to wait for the final four riders. Clément Izquierdo (Cofidis), Louis Hardouin (Van Rysel Roubaix) and Henri Uhlig (Alpecin–Premier Tech) lost too much time and would not be able to fight for the overall win. Kubiš conceded seven seconds to Costiou at the intermediate check, but the climb was still to come. There he lost too much time — and with it, he had to give up his lead.